New GABA-Targeting Therapies for the Treatment of Seizures and Epilepsy: I. Role of GABA as a Modulator of Seizure Activity and Recently Approved Medications Acting on the GABA System.

ABSTRACT: γ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) is the most prevalent inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian brain and has been found to play an important role in the pathogenesis or the expression of many neurological diseases, including epilepsy. Although GABA can act on different receptor subtypes, the component of the GABA system that is most critical to modulation of seizure activity is the GABA_A-receptor-chloride (Cl^-) channel complex, which controls the movement of Cl^- ions across the neuronal membrane. In the mature brain, binding of GABA to GABA_A receptors evokes a hyperpolarising (anticonvulsant) response, which is mediated by influx of Cl^- into the cell driven by its concentration gradient between extracellular and intracellular fluid. How

SUBMITTER: Perucca E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10501955 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature